The world of mimic babies: who is pudu and what does he face with a codecode
We are used to the deer being a big, proud and sometimes noble animal. An adult male is quite capable of standing up for himself and even killing the most dangerous predator on the planet — man. But not all deer are the same — there are also babies among them, which can be carried away in the teeth of a cat. Don't you believe it? Then meet pudu, a miniature deer from South America.
Pudu live in remote mountainous and forested areas of Chile, but they are often kept at home as cute pets. And even though this animal weighs less than 7 kg and is no more than 30 cm tall, it can walk on its hind legs, barks and even understands commands — it is a real deer, with horns, hooves and other deer attributes.
Unfortunately, pudu's interaction with a person, as it most often happens, does not bring him happiness. Funny tiny deer are highly valued on the black market of rare animals and therefore they are intensively hunted. Poachers sell an animal listed in the Red Book for several million rubles and there are always enough people willing to pay for a pood.
And cats and dogs destroy the pudu, which easily cope with a deer similar to a pomeranian. In its natural habitat, the animal skillfully hides from predators in the thicket, but active deforestation by humans deprives them of the opportunity to hide from dangers.
Unfortunately, very soon the planet may be left without these funny babies — the pudu population does not have time to recover for natural reasons. The fact is that although the females of this deer become sexually mature at the age of only six months, they carry their cubs for seven months and give birth to only one crumb. And the pudu does not live very long — if the beast is not overtaken by a predator, its age on this earth will be 10-12 years.
Remember we talked about cats that hunt tiny deer? So, we did not mean quite simple cats, but codecodes — another interesting and, alas, also rare inhabitants of South America. These predators are not yet extinct, but already belong to vulnerable species.
A codecode, or a Chilean cat— is a kind of small leopard, whose body length is 50-60 cm, and weight is up to 3 kg. Chilean cats hunt birds, rodents, small reptiles and, unfortunately, the poodoo. The spectacle of a small leopard hunting a small deer is probably another show, but it's better to do without it.
Codcode and pudu are two endemics of Chile that have lived in the same mountain forests for thousands of years and maintained a wonderful natural balance. So it's not worth blaming the Chilean cat for the catastrophic decrease in the number of pud - until a man appeared, these two species did not interfere with each other.